Wild Side Chronicles
by Archie'n'Amphy
Summary: There was a new game at the arcade...but it closed before anyone could play it...Casey and his pals are about to find out why...
1. Beta Start

"Guys, maybe we should rethink this."

"Aw, the nerd chickening out?"

"Hey hey, Tim, I'm a semi-geek at worst. Real nerds wear dorky glasses, write fanfiction, and have no offline friends."

"Eh, one out o' three ain't so bad."

"Also, a nerd would have burst into tears at that last statement, but I see through you're mock-cruelty, you massive binturong."

"Please shut up, both of you," Casey snapped at his friends they plodded along the dusky, somewhat empty city sidewalks. The streets were crowded, tired drivers behind each wheel. Yes, it was pretty late.

Tim, the fairly chubby kid, huffed, while Maxwell, skinny, but the tallest one there, grumbled, "Need I remind you who the real nerds in this group are? So crazy about the new arcade game with only one level that they're willing to break in and not even listen to the risks."

Casey, the mutual leader of the group, rolled his eyes, which were permanently hidden under his shades. He said, "Fair enough. What were you saying about rethinking the plan?"

"Interested now?" Maxwell snickered, then became serious. "We all know that the arcade was closed this morning for no apparent reason. I thought it may have been a maintenance thing, or some safety violation that needed fixing, but the place stayed closed all day with no announcements, and that's when you made me start this crazy, illegal plan."

"Sheesh, we're not stealing anything," Tim grunted.

"Except maybe electricity," mumbled Casey thoughtfully.

"ANYway, while I was visiting my forums just before..." (Tim muttered "nerd" under his breath.) "...I found out something pretty crazy. All around the country, no, other countries too...pretty much every arcade in the world was suddenly shut down without warning, just like ours. People were complaining like crazy on just about every forum around. Especially, you know, the countries where Wild Side was already popular."

"Well, yeah," Casey replied. "I mean, Wild Side supposedly made arcades worthwhile again. So did ANYBODY know why this happened?"

"Maybe, but I couldn't read the foreign language sites," admitted Maxwell. "But guys, do you understand what this means?"

The two were silent, until Tim's eyes suddenly widened in horror. "You don't think Jack Thompson finally convinced the government that videogames are 'evil,' do you?" he cried.

"Dear God no!" replied Casey, disgusted. "We would've heard about that long before."

"But something is definitely wrong with the worldwide arcades," Maxwell explained, "and the government doesn't want the general public to find out. That's why I think we shouldn't go through with this plan; it could be dangerous."

There was a long silence. The three boys stood on the sidewalk in a disjointed circle, lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Casey smirked and spoke. "You do realize that, now having told us this, we're going to HAVE to go there and find out what all the fuss is about."

Grinning, Tim replied, "Couldn'ta said it better myself, Casey."

"Oh, come on!"

%%%

Several minutes later, the trio was peeking around from the corner of an alley. There, across the street, was the arcade, surrounded by yellow tape and a few cop cars. The flashing lights were off this time, unlike in the morning when they had first arrived.

"This is gonna be tough. We have to get to the back to infiltrate the air ducts," Maxwell whispered.

Tim snickered, "Just like Half-Life."

Casey glared at him, but said to Maxwell, "Well, let's get out the distractor."

In response, Maxwell reached into his backpack and pulled out what he called Arc-1, a remote-control helicopter with a claw on the bottom. "You guys do the honors," he said while pulling out a heavily modified GBA SP that was the controller and two walkie-talkies. "I'll let you know when the back is clear."

It wasn't that Maxwell couldn't pilot his own machine. It was just that Casey and Tim, with all their videogame experience, had much better hand-eye coordination. Even as he was just walking out of the alley, Arc-1 was already launched, rising high into the dark sky. Eventually, it dive-bombed one officer, snatching the hat right off his head.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Even across the street, his yell was quite audible. Casey, expertly dodging the flailing hands, snickered with delight. There was a camera on Arc-1, which let him see what was going on through the Gameboy's screen. To passerby, it looked like he was just playing a game.

"Oh God, look!" Tim whispered, peering over Casey's shoulder. "That one over there is eating a donut. You gotta let me take a turn!"

Casey obligingly handed over the controller. Arc-1, at the drop of the hat, swooped down and knocked the jelly donut out of the cop's hands.

"Crap, I meant to grab it." But Tim still got him pretty mad. The swearing seemed to echo for miles. More cops gathered to try and catch the flying contraption.

"That was fast," Maxwell's voice buzzed over the walkie-talkie. "Now's your chance."

The two briskly walked past the annoyed cops while Tim continued the "game," and safely joined Maxwell behind the arcade. He was unsuccessfully trying to open the air duct.

"Move aside, lightweight," Tim snorted, yanking the seal open, climbing in after his two friends, and shutting it behind himself.

%%%

Casey never went to the arcade very often, (virtual consoles had pretty much rendered those things obsolete to him,) but for the few times he had, there were many lively, colorful, and noisy memories. Machines jingling all kinds of short tunes, kids laughing gleefully as the scores rang loudly. Lights always dancing...

Entering now, in the dead of night, felt like coming into a morgue. The machines weren't alive, no movement in the slightest. They were just boxes. Dead, empty black boxes in dark grey room.

But the biggest box by far was Wild Side. The group had located it based on where they had seen the construction taking place during a recent visit. It took up about fifty square feet by itself, a small room. Maxwell pulled out his flashlight pen, which he was using sparingly to avoid attention from outside, and found the machine's control panel.

"I sure hope you're appreciating all this work," he grumbled quietly. "I already risked Arc-1 for your stupid cause, but my educational career is also at risk." But he soon shut up as he got more involved with the electronics. Casey and Tim had nothing to do, as they had already sent Arc-1 home, so they just sat next to Wild Side and waited. They wouldn't say it, but they'd have preferred Maxwell's complaining than the deafening silence.

Casey was close to dozing off, when suddenly, he heard a clunk of a door. He scrambled to the back, where Maxwell answered his question before it could be asked. "It's ready."

After waking up Tim, (he actually HAD fallen asleep,) the excited teens walked to the front, where the door to the giant box was opened. It wasn't dark inside, for a glowing, almost eerie, orange grid lined the walls, floor, and ceiling.

"Standby mode," Maxwell explained in a whisper. "Once you walk inside, the door will close, and then the game begins."

Casey couldn't believe that he was mere steps away from playing one of the most revolutionary games of all time. A game that you literally had to be in to play. No controller, no screen, just interactive holograms and yourself. He and Tim were rooted to the spot for a moment.

"Well, go on. Wild Side's not gonna play itself," urged Maxwell, giving them a light shove.

"You're not coming?" Tim asked suspiciously.

Shrugging, he replied, "I kinda wanna study this thing more closely. I'm sure glad I brought my notebook."

"Nerd," Tim muttered, earning him a glare.

"Call me that again, and I'll find a way to lock both of you in there." Even though they knew he was joking, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was capable of doing this. Tim didn't say anything else.

Tim and Casey walked into the gridded room. Sure enough, the door closed behind them, but besides the whirring of machinery in the walls, nothing else happened.

"Now what?" asked Tim. "You don't think that ne-Maxwell locked us in here for real, do you?"

At that moment, the grid lines started glowing brighter, then even brighter, until Casey had to cover his eyes. There was the sound of static, which started getting louder and stronger, but above it all, he heard a noise that all but stopped his breath.

Tim, screaming. Not yelling or whooping like he normally did when excited. A grating, pained scream.

"What's wrong!" Casey tried to yell, but the roar was too strong; he couldn't even hear his own voice anymore, let alone Tim's. Things continued like this for an eternity. This couldn't be part of the game, could it? Was it even part of the game's boot-up, or whatever? Most importantly, what was happening to Tim?

And then, just as suddenly as the noise had started, it stopped.

%%%

Cautiously, Casey opened an eye. Light, but no longer blinding. He uncovered his face and glanced around...

...The first thing he noticed was the grassy field, grass up to his ankles. He could feel the wind blowing it around. A short distance in front of him was small ledge, leading down to a bank beside a sparkling blue lake. Behind him, the field swelled into a slope, where taller grass was blowing, causing the wave of sunlight that Casey had always liked about tall grass. Further still behind, a line of tall, green trees, sprinkled along the horizon and lined the lake ahead.

Casey was in total awe. There was no way...Just to make sure he wasn't imagining any of this, he reached down and touched a blade of grass. It felt like a blade of grass.

No way...this kind of technology must have come from the future. With this kind of thing, one could, in a sense, do anything, go anywhere, see anything...

And yet, Tim was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Tim," said Casey, "are you getting this?"

No answer. Only a distant warbling sound like a flock of birds.

"Tim!"

This time, there was a rustling in the tall grass. Turning, Casey saw with dismay not Tim, but a rather bizarre looking lizard...


	2. Real Virtuality

It wasn't really a lizard, as anyone with even the slightest grasp of zoology would realize. Sure, it was green and scaly, with a tail, but its head was a strange shape, huge white fangs glistening, and it only had two legs and was walking upright. The clincher, though, was when the thing opened wide its mouth and spewed a green flame in Casey's direction.

Snapping himself out of his dumbfounded state, he managed to dive out of the way just in time. Apparently, this was one of the enemies. Casey tried to crawl away, but suddenly felt a stinging pain on his leg. The thing, like a chicken pecking for grain, had grabbed it with its mouth.

He gave a short cry. He couldn't help it. He hadn't expected the game to actually hurt him, although it had exceeded any amount of realism from past games, so he shouldn't have been too surprised.

With his free leg, he smacked the beast in the face. It squealed and let him go, but Casey wasn't going to give it the chance to back off. He got to his feet, too filled with adrenaline to notice the pain in his leg at the moment, and decked the creature squarely on the nose.

With one last scream, it fell on the ground, twitched a little, and then stopped moving. Casey kicked it a few times, just to be safe. He lifted his pant leg and examined the spot where the beast had bitten him. No broken skin, not even a bruise, so perhaps this game had more bark than bite. It still hurt, but not enough that he couldn't walk away.

He was about to do just that when the thing's body started glowing. Curious, Casey took a few small steps back toward it, not wanting to get too close in case something bad were to happen. While the corpse shined, it seemed to be shrinking, until there was nothing left of it except small green gem.

Casey picked it up. It was warm, but it didn't seem to be anything special. Still, it was a reward for killing the enemy, so he pocketed it and went along his way.

%%%

For what seemed like hours, Casey wandered along the edge of the lake. Eventually, he came across a new oddity.

It was a carrot with legs. At least, that's what it looked like from a distance. Approaching cautiously, in case it was another enemy, Casey realized that it was simply a man in a carrot suit, pacing around tirelessly like he was very perplexed.

"Oh, hello," the Carrot-man said when he saw Casey. He had a strange voice. Pleasant, but sort of echoey and ominous...

"Um, hi," replied the teen distrustfully. "What are you, an enemy?"

"No, I'm an NPC," was the reply. Nonetheless, Casey kept his guard up. "There's been a major slowdown of players recently, you know," the NPC went on. "You're the first I've seen in almost twelve hours."

"Whatever," Casey responded impatiently. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find Tim, would you? I started playing the game with him, but now I just can't find him."

Raising an eyebrow, the Carrot-man asked, "What do you mean, 'with him'?"

"Like, we both got in the machine and it started up."

"At the same time!" he cried, clasping both hands to his face in horror.

"Uh, yeah. What's the big deal?"

Lowering his voice, he replied, "You're not supposed to do that. Only one person is allowed to use a single Wild Side unit at once. The programmers haven't yet perfected local multiplayer."

Casey was silent for moment. "So...what does that mean then?"

"Well, you'll get in big trouble when you leave!"

"What about Tim, though?"

"What about Tim?"

"What happened to him?" growled Casey.

The Carrot-man shrugged. "Nothing, I assume. He's not part of the game, so the holograms are simply 'hiding' him. ANyway," he seemed to be trying to change the subject, "how do you like Wild Side so far? Do you have any other questions?"

"Er..." If what this guy was saying was true, Casey didn't really have to worry about Tim anymore. "Not reall-oh wait." He hastily pulled the little green jewel out from his pocket. "What's this?"

"A diamond," he replied disinterestedly, as if he had answered this question a million times before. "Enemies sometimes drop them, but you can also find them in P boxes."

"And...what are they for?"

"Buying things from shops, or casting spells. Of course, since you only have one, you can do neither of those things at the moment. You can carry them in this." He handed Casey a small brown sack.

Casey's eyes had widened when the Carrot-man had mentioned spells. It sounded neat. "How would I cast these spells if I did have enough diamonds?"

"That's a bit...complicated...it has to do with concentration..." he vaguely replied.

Oh well. "Then where are the shops?"

"There's one along the lake's shore. Just keep following it and you can't miss it."

"Alright. Thanks for the help then, um, NPC dude."

The NPC seemed a bit startled at this statement, then chuckled calmly, "If you have any more questions, I'll be right here. Not leaving anytime soon."

It sure was an advanced NPC, Casey thought as he walked away. To be able to hold up such a conversation must've taken massive memory. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was probably one of the developers, there to help since all of this was so new.

But then, why had he talked as if he didn't know all the arcades were closing? He glanced over his shoulder to see the Carrot-man pacing back and forth again. Just how long had he been there?

%%%

The shop was empty. It was a round, purple room with curtains, like a swami's room. There was even a crystal ball with a black stand sitting on a little table at the back.

"Hello?" Casey called out. Silence. He walked to the middle of the room and tried again. "Anyone?" Still nothing.

At that point, he turned and noticed that the crystal ball was sparkling eerily. He went over to it and realized that it was hollow and full of diamonds.

"I'm going to take these diamonds if no one answers me!" Casey yelled, but the room was just as quiet as ever before. He meant it to be an empty threat, but it suddenly occurred to him that that wasn't a bad idea. The Carrot-man hadn't told him how many diamonds it would take to cast a spell, but here was enough to probably cast fifty!

But wouldn't that be stealing? He shook the question from his head. Of course it would be stealing, but that's a perfectly acceptable action in most videogames. Looting graves, entering houses without permission, smashing pots...and even if this was like Baldur's Gate where legions of wizards appear out of nowhere for even the slightest offense, it was still just a game.

Despite all that, he reached for the sphere hesitantly, then slowly lifted it...

"HEY!"

Casey started, almost dropping the treasure, and looked over his shoulder. Nobody still. Then who...?

"Hey, dammit! Whaddya think your doin'?"

And then it hit him: the high-pitched metallic voice was coming from the crystal ball's stand. He saw a red digital face light up on it and glare at him. At the same time, a spaghetti-like robotic arm popped out and pinched his hand with its claw.

"Ow!" He dropped the globe back onto the stand.

"Thought so," the stand-robot grunted. "Don't try taking anything again, or I won't be so nice."

"Well...I tried getting your attention before," Casey replied defensively.

The robot snorted again. "Yeah right. But on second thought, I should expect as much when I fall asleep on the job. That's not my fault, though! I haven't seen any players for more than ten hours!"

"So this is a shop, right?" Casey tried to change the subject.

"Of course it is!" It cried. "But what makes you think I'd sell to a would-be thief like you?"

Casey was about to say something when he realized it wouldn't do any good. This shop owner was probably programmed to refuse any people who attempted thievery; the price for stealing.

But even as he left, he felt somewhat disturbed by the place. That robot could not have been human, but it seemed just as intelligent as the Carrot-man. Besides, refusing to sell to someone was the least that could happen in real life, given the situation. As a whole, Wild Side was disturbing.

Disturbingly real.

%%%

The flag was obviously the goal of the level. It was guarded by no less than seven of those lizard-things. Also, it had the word "end" written on it in big red letters, but Casey was too distracted by the monsters to notice that at first.

All the lizard-things seemed much smarter than the ones he had fought on the way here. And since there were a bunch of them, there wasn't much time to beat up one when another was sneaking up behind.

Casey retreated for a moment so he could rethink things while the lizards moved back into their protective circle around the flag. He was covered in bites that hurt like crazy. There were even teeth marks! Not knowing his HP meant that he was either good for a couple more hits, or on the brink of death.

Not real death, of course. Hopefully not. Even though it was preposterous to think that the game would kill him for real, Casey had resolved to not take any more chances.

Clearly, his only chance was to break through quickly and reach the flag before he took any more damage. But how? If only he had figured out how to use magic. He had twenty-seven diamonds from other enemies burning a hole in his pocket, but they wouldn't burn through anything else.

At that point, he remembered the Carrot-man mentioning concentration. How would that help? Could Wild Side read minds now? Still, he didn't have any other options, and what was the worst that could happen? _Damnit, I probably jinxed myself for thinking that!_

Nonetheless, he grabbed a handful of diamonds and tried to relax his mind, but what was he supposed to concentrate on? To his surprise, he somehow "felt" the answer. A rush strength, and suddenly, the world around him fell under a green tint. When he looked back at his hands, he saw the diamonds had crumbled to grey dust.

"I guess...something worked," Casey mumbled, a bit bewildered. He didn't know what had happened, but now was probably the best chance he had of beating this crazy game.

He rushed at the seven lizards, who bared their teeth and swarmed to meet him. The first one leaped at him...and dissolved as soon as it touched the green force-field around him.

Casey was dumbfounded as the other lizards shrank away from him in terror. A clear path! He snapped himself out of his shock, rushed passed them, and grabbed the flag...

...Immediately, the world around him darkened, fading away. The flag slipped from his hand as he entered an ominous black void. Only when the familiar orange grid reappeared did Casey let out a sigh of relief...

...Too soon, as Tim was still gone.


	3. Elsewhere

A/N: I apologize for any butchered french.

&&&&&&&Elsewhere

Illusion City hadn't even flickered for almost 24 hours, but the ever-watchful Ariane kept a close look at it anyway. She just knew the game was trying to trick her, and she wouldn't back down for anything. It was a waiting game. As soon as Ariane would leave, another unfortunate soul would become lost forever.

Unlike the game, though, Ariane needed sleep.

And her black, beaded braids kept getting in her eyes. She brushed them away for the third time and glared at the setting sun between the distant skyscrapers. How long had the sky looked like this? Four days now? She wished it would get a little brighter, or one of the other kids would hurry and trade watches with her. Perhaps, if she hurried, she could get her buddy, Hugo, up here before...

...it changed.

A few skyscrapers shrank, others grew. All shifted positions. One building rose higher than the others, with a spire, that looked like the Empire State Building. Ariane was no longer tired, although the sky darkened considerably.

Grabbing her Eyeclops mask, she bounded from her watch tower and rushed toward the morphing mirage. It was time to face the game again.

%%%

Nothing to worry about. Maxwell had let Tim out when they realized he wasn't part of the game.

"Tim? Maxwell?" Casey called as the door to the arcade machine slipped open, but no one was outside...or, at least, right outside. He quickly circled around to the back of the machine. Nothing. The panel that covered the inner workings of Wild Side was in place, as if no one had been there.

At first, Casey thought they might have been discovered by the police outside, arrested or simply chased away...but that wouldn't explain why everything was left so neat. Surly, in a struggle with authorities, not even Maxwell would think to fix everything back up. "Hey, officer, could I just put the panel back on before you cart me to jail?" Not likely.

As he circled the machine one more time in bewilderment, another thought came to him in a burst of anger. Had they just left on their own accord? Got tired and decided to screw him? No, no. Tim might have had that sentiment after Casey getting to play and not him, but Maxwell? He couldn't imagine any betrayal from that guy.

At that point, Casey happened to look up at the glass door entrance, and saw something stranger. No yellow tape. It had been perfectly visible before. Had the police finally left? Casey crept forward to get a better look. Still nothing. He was about to lean on the door for greater view, just to be extra sure, when he realized the door was loose. Why would it have been left unlocked? He burst out recklessly, almost hoping the cops would start chasing him, but there was nobody.

His head in a whirl now, Casey forced himself to breath evenly. There was a reason for all this, there had to be: he had been inside that game for maybe twenty minutes or so. Maxwell and Tim, getting bored, noticed that the police had pulled away at last, because of whatever. Thinking that this meant the arcade may be open tomorrow, Maxwell patched up the back and they left. Although why they decided to leave through the front door was beyond him, he was sure they'd be able to fill him in tomorrow. In the meantime, Casey just wanted to go home and get some sleep. He'd be able to find out tomorrow. Of course.

%%%

Another strange thing occurred to Casey while he sat at the bus stop. Although the cars on the streets whizzed by as normal, there weren't any people on the sidewalks. There'd always be at least one or two late-nighters. On the other hand, he had never been out at 2:30 in the morning either.

Finally, a bus pulled up. As Casey got on, he noticed that no one else was riding. Strange...but, plausible...until he saw the driver.

Or rather, didn't see the driver. The seat was empty, but the handle cranked the doors shut by itself, and the machine began revving.

Casey bolted. He was slamming himself into the bus doors, tumbling out into the busy street, then racing frantically to avoid the other driverless vehicles, which weren't even attempting to swerve around him, until he somehow made it to the sidewalk and collapsed in a heap.

He lay for a long time, gasping for breath, but unable to think straight anymore. Tim and Maxwell...did they disappear too? How on earth are those cars moving? What about Mom? Why? And Jessie...the rest of my family! What the Hell happened here?

_...Beyond your understanding, but I can help..._

There was no voice. It almost felt like Casey had thought the words himself, but...still breathing heavily, he sat up and looked around cautiously. What's gonna happen now?

_...I can help you find them. Don't be afraid..._

Something in front of him started glowing. Small and square, which suddenly inflated into a huge cube right before him, transparent except for a bright blue grid, blinding as the sun.

This was too much. Casey staggered to his feet and started to flee. Stumbling at first, then dashing into a sprint, he raced into the park, but he could still see the light in the corner of his eye.

Curiosity made him look over his shoulder at his pursuer, but he immediately regretted it. Between the blinding blue light were two big, green balloon-like eyes, just staring...Holy...!

_...Don't run, you fool! I'm a friend!...STOP!_

"Arrêtez!"

It was then that he crashed into somebody, and they both fell to the ground. Yes, somebody. A teenage girl dressed in a strange, green, skintight suit, a matching helmet over her head, and carrying what looked like an over-sized flashlight, but definitely human nonetheless. Casey would have been relieved to see her if he wasn't still freaked out about seeing his pursuer.

"Attention!" she snapped while jumping to her feet. She then confidently strode past Casey, toward the...thing...She pointed her flashlight...and somehow shot a solid beam of white light out of it, striking the...thing...between the eyes.

_BWiG^&8tH(*H8g*&g^D%()Uh(H(*()NgvYfty!#$90)(&=+_

A sound that could only be compared to static screamed in Casey's brain. He hissed while clutching his head in agony. When the noise stopped a few moments later, he looked up and saw the girl offering him her hand. Here he noticed that the helmet and suit covered everything except her brown chin and mouth, which was smiling. The thing must have gone away.

"Ça va? Vous avez une blessure?"

"Uh..." Casey couldn't speak French. He wasn't even sure if this person was speaking French. That's how bad he was. "I'm sorry. I don't know what you said," he muttered while she helped him to his feet. She was only slightly shorter than him. "But, um, thank you for...helping me out."

With a shrug, she replied, "Pas de problème," a phrase that Casey might have had to be an idiot to not get. "Mais, vous avez une blessure!" She was pointing at his arm...

...Which had an enormous scrap that went from the middle of his forearm almost to his shoulder. How did...? Oh wait; he must have gotten it when he hit the pavement while trying to escape that bus. It looked pretty horrible, and felt pretty horrible too, now that his adrenaline was going down.

"Yeah, um. It's okay."

She snorted. "C'est des conneries. Alors, je suis Ariane. Et vous?"

When Casey didn't respond, the girl sighed and pointed at herself. "Moi! Ariane!" She barked. Then she jabbed her finger at him. "Vous!"

"Ah! Um, Casey," he replied awkwardly.

"Écoutez, Cay-Say, je sais un lieu de refuge." She started to walk away, then turned and beckoned exaggeratedly. "Allons-y!"

Casey followed, but hesitantly remarked, "My name is pronounced Cay-SEE."

"Je sais, Cay-Say," she replied.

%%%

Ariane and Casey trekked through the lively but dead city. Despite being driverless, the cars obeyed the traffic laws, so they were able to cross the road at crosswalks. There was still no one but them, and Casey didn't know what to think. What's going on? What's going on?

Ariane might know, but the language barrier wasn't going to make things too much clearer. He didn't know where she was leading him, but it would hopefully be to some place with other people. Hopefully an English-speaker.

The building they eventually entered, what used to be the pet store, had no people, but it didn't take long for Casey to realize it looked exactly like the store from Wild Side. Ariane approached the same kind crystal ball standbot filled with diamonds and said. "Salut, Zshee-bot! J'ai besoin de trois tomates et deux navets."

"Sure thing, Ariane. New friend?" He was looking at Casey.

"Oui. C'est Cay-Say."

"Nice to meet you, Casey," the robot said, pronouncing his name right despite what he was told. "Name's J-bot. I run the store here."

Casey hadn't been listening. He silently stared at the familiar face, then burst into laughter.

"Qu'est-ce qu'il y a de drôle?" Ariane asked.

"Yeah, what's so funny?" J-bot pressed.

Casey regained his composure and replied, "Sorry. I'm just...so happy this is still Wild Side. None of this is real. Man, this game is sick."

J-bot and Ariane looked at each other worriedly. "He doesn't know yet, does he?" J-bot said.

"C'est vrai, il est un nouveau."

Not smiling anymore, Casey demanded, "How can you two understand each other? And what don't I know?"

"Well, I'd better get you those vegetables!" cried the robot. He started reaching into a nearby cupboard with his stretchy arms.

"Hang on a minute! Are you guys screwing with me?"

"Here you are, Ariane." Three tomatoes and two turnips were dropped into her arms.

"C'est combien?" she questioned.

"Twenty diamonds."

"Would someone please tell me what the fu-!" Casey was interrupted as Ariane had shoved one of the tomatoes into his open mouth.

"Mangez!" she ordered, tossed twenty brown diamonds into J-bot's globe, then started ushering Casey out the door. "Merci, Zshee-bot!"

%%%

Eating the tomato made the large scrape on Casey's arm heal over instantaneously, but he was still feeling sullen.

"Why didn't you tell me you could speak English?" Casey asked angrily.

"Anglais? Euh," she looked upwards, as if searching for words. "I...not talk...much...English."

"Well, you must speak it well enough to understand that robot."

"Zshee-bot 'as a...translateur," she tried to explain. She pointed at her head and added, "Mine...'ere."

Casey blinked. This wasn't the answer he had expected, but then, what had he expected. "What the heck are you talking about?"

Suddenly, she jerked her head, glancing at one of the nearby buildings. "Sh! Pas maintenant!" she whispered, leading him behind a dumpster. "Il y a un ennemi."

"An enemy?" he asked, peeking around the dumpster with her. The building she had looked at before still didn't have anything near it. "Where?"

"Dans l'immeuble." She pointed at the bakery across the street. "Restez ici. Uh, stay 'ere."

She dashed off, and in the same moment, part of the building started crumbling, then exploded, and two small, red things shot out of the ruins. They were moving so fast, Casey had no idea what they were supposed to be. Red blurs that seemed to be spinning, like tiny, furious cyclones, trying to dive-bomb Ariane.

Despite this, Ariane held fast to her composure. She faced one and kept her giant flashlight aimed at the other, almost as if she was using it as another set of eyes. The things could rarely hit her, and she would often bludgeon them as they zoomed past. Eventually, one of the little tornadoes disintegrated and turned into three diamonds after an especially hardy strike, and the other flew away, like it had been discouraged. Panting a little, she sat down on the sidewalk and started eating one of the tomatoes.

Cautiously, Casey emerged from his hiding place and exclaimed, "That was amazing!"

Ariane looked up and beamed a little, but she suddenly frowned, pointed, and yelled, "Attention!"

Too late. Although, if he had turned around and looked, he would have gotten a face full of dust. He managed to dive to the ground as what felt like a small fighter jet clipped his hair. The cyclone thing was back.

A white beam, similar to the one she used before, shot from Ariane's flashlight, but the target darted out of the way, and shot straight into Casey's chest just after he had gotten up. He stumbled back, and was hit again, tripped, and landed on his back with a loud "OOF!"

"Cay-Say!" shouted Ariane. She was now running into the battle, but she was only halfway there by the time the cyclone had risen up and began corkscrewing down. Casey was quite dazed by this point, watching the spiraling death tornado coming straight at him, when...

...What if I actually die?

It would have seemed like an irrational question before, but he was in survival mode again, like when he was attacked by that lizard thing. Even though there seemed to be an impossibly small window of opportunity, he managed to roll out of the way at the last moment, and was almost thrown by the cracking pavement.

The creature wasn't spinning so fast anymore, and Casey could almost see its features even. Humanoid, but in a cartoony way, with a square shaped head. It squirmed dizzily at the bottom of the small crater it had created, but Casey didn't give it a chance to recover fully. All in the same movement, he jammed his foot at it, got up, and began punching it as fast as he could. By the time Ariane had arrived, there was only a panting Casey clutching his chest, and three diamonds.

"Incroyable," she murmured. She looked right at him, mouth twitching, hesitating a smile. "You are...game child?"

"Ummmm, I'm a gamer," Casey replied, once again lost by the translation.

She shook her head, "Non non...you..." She stopped, then smiled at last. "Laisse-tomber. Allons-y."


End file.
